35 Medical Conditions Often Overlooked Until It’s Too Late

We often feel like a burden when we’re sick, which can lead us to ignore symptoms and attempt to “power through” by pushing ourselves. This may be to avoid further financial strain or perhaps even not to disrupt plans or responsibilities. Unfortunately, this reluctance causes many people to overlook medical problems that may be far more serious than they think.

#1

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If you suddenly see an increase in flashes or floaters in your vision, get your a*s to an ophthalmologist right away. It could be a retina detachment, and although technology is great, we don’t have artificial retinas that work as well as human eyes just yet. The sooner you get it checked, the sooner your vision could be saved.

Saul_Badman_1261:

Yes please get it checked as soon as possible, suddenly had floaters a few months ago after a bad flu, stressed out for days because people kept talking about retina detachment, I also saw post-images which is like still seeing something stuck on your vision after looking at it for a while.
Went to a ophtalmologist, who didn’t do a full retinal scanning but just looked at my retina from side to side and told me she didn’t see any problems but assigned me to a retinologist, which then used a more sophisticated machine alongisde with lenses and some eye drops for anesthesia.
Turns out I have post-vitral detachment on both eyes (which apparently is more common with older people), which has almost the same symptons but doesn’t cause damage to your vision (only causes more floaters). But if you are having those symptons I suggest always assuming it’s a retina detachment, you can never be too careful.

#2

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Endometriosis, usually not ignored by patients but by doctors. This goes for many uturus-related issues.

missThora:

Other way around too.
If your periods are painful enough that you can’t function during them, it is NOT normal, and get a second or third opinion if you have to until you find someone who cares.

#3

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Almost every problem listed here people generally dont ignore its just the doctors that ignore it and tell their patients its probably just anxiety.

#4

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Hypochondriacs may want to skip this thread.

To answer:

– Anything related to blood pressure.

– Dental issues.

– Slowly declining vision.

To add a few important habits:

– Get your annual blood work done.

– Men over 42: get your prostate exam. I cannot stress that one enough.

– If you notice any new lumps, sores that won’t heal, or any sudden weight loss: talk to your doctor. Immediately.

#5

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Given I have lost three female friends this year to heart attacks, this. One even sought care at an urgent facility and was told she had the flu. She died two days later. The symptoms present differently than they do in men and are as such, often overlooked or downplayed. Very sad.

bugbugladybug:

I know a woman who got told it was just a panic attack. She told them she wanted to see them write “refused to check for heart attack” in the notes and hit submit before she’d let the ambulance crew leave.
They sighed and said fine, and took her in..
Massive heart attack, very close to death. She needed extensive rehab and still isn’t right.

#6

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As a an overweight woman, I feel stupid taking anything wrong to a doctor because they will say it’s because of my weight, or it’s all in my head. Even when I explain how it’s interfering with my life, they shrug and tell me to eat better.

one_hot_potato:

I was 107 lbs, had been referred to GI for unexplained weight loss. CT scan was mostly normal, but showed fatty liver. I don’t drink alcohol, I asked the GI what I should do. Her response: lose weight.
My point is as simply being a woman, I feel stupid taking anything wrong to a doctor because they will say it’s because of my weight or it’s all in my head (oh, that’s just stresssssss).

#7

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I had very irregular periods for years, I’m talking 3 months without one followed by going for a month and a half straight. I went to one gyno and they did a vaginal ultrasound but didn’t see anything. The lady who performed it literally shrugged it off. I just thought maybe it was a byproduct of getting my period at 8-9 years old.

Earlier this year I went to a different gyno to get a bilateral salpingectomy. He noticed my hemoglobin was at about 7.4 and I told him about my irregular, increasingly heavy periods. He, too, found nothing during the vaginal ultrasound but elected to do a D and C during my bisalp. Come to find out I had stage 1 uterine cancer which, luckily, was resolved with a total hysterectomy.

AproposOfDiddly:

Along the same lines … I had a raw, itchy spot on my vulva for months. When I went in for my yearly well woman exam, I asked the doctor, “As long as you’re down there, can you see if you can tell what that spot is, and maybe prescribe a cream or something for it?” Come to find out I had vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia 3. VIN isn’t cancer but could become cancer and is caused by the same HPV virus as cervical cancer (just on the outside instead of the inside). I had to have a partial vulvectomy surgery to remove the cells, which was as fun as it sounds. It came back twice a few years later and I had to have two more surgeries to remove the recurrence of the precancerous cells.

The moral of the story is if your lady bits don’t bleed when they should, or bleed/ hurt/ itch when they shouldn’t, talk to a doctor.

#8

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Sleep deprivation, people treat it like a badge of honor until their body just quits.

GalaxyPowderedCat:

Yeah, you’re not too off the mark
I felt the weirdest experience when I’d sleep deprived myself for mental health reasons.
I used to sleep like 2-4 hours or so a day and my body couldn’t even react anymore, I don’t have the right term to encapsulate it, but I literally fell to the floor and I couldn’t move, the only thing that I could do was staring at the floor for some solid 14 minutes before moving again.
I cannot explain it at all…but that happened.

#9

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Diabetes. If you can control it you can live a long time with it . However if you dont you can get congested heart failure, dialysis, heart attacks, etc.

kelmo80:

Yep my mum had so many co-morbidities with her type 2 diabetes because she never changed her lifestyle. High blood pressure, kidneys started failing, heart failure, circulation issues. She ended up getting ovarian cancer. Honestly her final 6 years were terrible.
Edit: she was also only 61 when she died.

#10

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Ok listen. We need to have a discussion about normal and not normal poops. Hard poop, bleeding, cramping other uncomfortable bowel movements need to be addressed. Colon cancer is a thing. I have a family member whose only 30 and ignored symptoms until the last minute. He’s stage four.

CrankTanks:

This is so random but 2 days ago I had the most severe stomach cramping/pain of my life and passed out. Twice. Followed by literally going into shock. This seemed extreme even for a flare up of my IBD but I thought I should ride it out like usual.
Haven’t pooped since and have had continued cramping (although far less painful) and quite a lot of pain in my belly. It’s 2:30 am and your comment has convinced me to stop putting it off and just go head down to the emergency room. Just wanted to say thanks for this!
Edit: Someone suggested I do an edit as opposed to individual replies. I got up and went to the hospital after leaving this comment and they diagnosed me with a bowel obstruction. I obviously made it worse by sitting on it for 2 days without seeking medical care (oops) and they opted to remove it surgically. I am alive and well and OBSTRUCTION FREE!
Thank you everyone for your well wishes and concerns, it was really heart warming to read. To anyone else who’s questioning getting checked out for the love of God, go do it. I nearly k**led a portion of my bowels for no good reason 💀 and that would have been a SH**TY time …

#11

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Women’s abdominal pain. If it’s not worse than a period we just kinda… brush it off. It can’t be that bad, right? Apparently it can be cancer.

jessa_plz:

This! I never went to the doctor because I never saw a need to. Well 3 years ago, I was ignoring a mild abdominal pain for two weeks. I mentioned it to my husband and he made me go to the ER. This is how I found out I had an enlarged liver (that was NAFLD), extremely high blood pressure (they were worried about me having a stroke) and then a week later getting diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. It scared me so badly that I changed my life completely. 3 years later and I’m happy to say I have none of those issues and now have regular checkups and blood panels.

#12

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I’m an ER doctor so there’s a lot I could probably add here, but there are three that come to mind:

– abrupt changes in exercise tolerance. Especially in young healthy people. If you run 10km every day and you’re suddenly winded after 5km, or you’re getting terrible leg cramps in one leg every time you work out, you should be assessed. Just because you *can* still run doesn’t mean you don’t have something going on, it means you’re healthy enough that your body is capable of compensating really well. The last two cases like this I saw were a pulmonary embolism and a postviral cardiomyopathy from a mild COVID infection. Both in young, healthy runners. Have also seen cancers present this way.
– Unexplained weight loss. Especially in larger people, they’re pleased they are losing weight so they don’t get it assessed. I wouldn’t run to the doctor for a few pounds weight change, but if we’re passing 5%ish body weight loss without a clear behavioural or medication related cause, this should be looked into.
– blood in stool. Even if you have haemorrhoids, even if you’re young, DO NOT IGNORE BLOOD IN YOUR STOOL. We are actually seeing an increased diagnosis of GI cancers in people under 40. Any blood in stool without an obvious bleeding fissure that I can see gets sent for a colonoscopy.

hmets27m:

One of my friends was an avid runner and she started seeing the changes you described. Her primary care physician said she was just aging. Two months later she sought a second opinion because she’d tried everything and her stamina was still decreasing. Turns out it was leukemia. She didn’t make it six months after diagnosis and trying every treatment option available. We were in our 30’s.

#13

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Hypertension. I’ve known/heard about people ignoring their symptoms for years until they’re being rushed to ER with a heart attack or stroke. I passed off the symptoms for years as anxiety since the symptoms are very similar and I have PTSD/anxiety. I’m now on medication. Still have anxiety, but nothing compared to the hypertension levels I was feeling pre-meds.

#14

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Hitting your head and losing consciousness. Brain bleeds often don’t show any symptoms until you go down, dead.

I’m only alive because my coworker insisted I get in the ambulance. He was right. I checked out , but the crew got me rebooted. (Defib, breathing , etc).

weirwoodheart:

It’s actually more common NOT to lose consciousness with a concussion than to lose it. This was one I had to tell patients a lot when they brushed off their head injuries as ‘oh but I wasn’t knocked out’.

#15

Not necessarily ignored, but not taken seriously in my mom’s case: chronic pain and swelling.

For about 6 months, my mom had chronic and worsening stomach/abdominal pain. She initially wrote it off as diverticulitis, which she had dealt with before. Doctors waved her off as it just being because she was severely overweight. Then came the abdominal swelling. It started small at first, but the doctors didn’t think too much about it thinking she had just gained more weight.

Turned out to be ascites causing both the pain and swelling. They culminated into causing a full bowel obstruction that landed her in the ER. Underlying cause of the ascites turned out to be stage 4 gynecological cancer. She managed to walk again after being bedbound for 2 months, but lost the fight after about 9 months of treatment.

Please, if you are having any symptoms like hers and the doctors are not taking you seriously…

*Push back!* Advocate for yourself!

I sometimes wonder if things would have been different if I had pushed her to go to a different doctor and not accept the old, ‘it’s because you’re fat’ answer.

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#16

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Snoring + tiredness (potential sleep apnea).

notfin:

Lol that’s me. I was at the hospital after I just collapsed and I guess I fell asleep the doctor said they never heard someone snore so loud while laying on their stomach. They told me to do a sleep study then prescribed me a CPAP machine.

#17

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That one persistent, low-grade pain you treat like your car’s check engine light. you just put a piece of tape over it and hope for the best. then one day you reach for a dorito off the floor and your soul leaves your body.

13maven:

I have pain everywhere, for years. Can not find what is causing it. Joints, back, hips, knees, shoulders, neck. Today is about an 8, and my knee keeps locking up. Good stuff.

#18

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Massive bruising after an injury to a leg.

When I was in my mid twenties I popped my right knee out of joint while at work, ( have since been diagnosed with joint hypermobility) this was around 1983 or so, back then no work, no pay, and I had a wife and family so I just wrapped it and went back to work the next day

The leg was one big bruise from mid thigh to mid calf, and when I told my family doc about it he said don’t ever do that, with that kind of bruise in a leg you could have developed a blood clot.

At that age you’re indestructible though, or you think you are, lol.

#19

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Mental health

A lot of people either refuse to or dont understand that mental health can physically effect a person’s body. It quite literally wreaks havoc not just on your nervous system but other vital systems like immune. It quite literally is a slow and agonizing death. Everything is connected but its still one of the most under estimated aspects of holistic health.

A good (but heavy) book to read (or listen to on audible) is “The Body Keeps The Score” by Bessel Van Der Kolk. Hes a Dutch psychiatrist. Its a great book.

#20

Obesity. It really sneaks up on you. If you are a 5’9″ adult you are considered to be obese if you are over 203lbs. People don’t realize how bad it impacts their life. Joint damage, heart disease, cholesterol, Blood Pressure… and damage to small blood vessels so impotence. Not to mention being overweight makes you less likely to exercise which makes you even more overweight. Before you know it you are looking at a heart attack or stroke.

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#21

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Appreciate the health care professionals taking the time to comment here. So much misinformation gets spread online.

#22

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Persistent sinus infections. I used to get them all the time as a young teen between allergies and nasal polyps. I had one that would not go away. Went to the doctor’s office twice and was sent away with the reason being “it’s just a bug that’s been going around.” WrongO! I ended up in the ER. Turns out it may have started as a sinus infection, but it turned into a brain infection. The same thing happen to a family member 15 years prior. A kid at the high school I attended died from the very same thing a few years after I had mine.

#23

Most of them.

I used to work in a cardiovascular ICU and there were way too many patients who would have a decrease in exercise tolerance, function, energy levels overall, and not doing anything about it for weeks. And I’m talking about like, sleeping downstairs on the couch because they can’t make it up the stairs to the bedroom without getting winded.

Rapid weight gain, rapid weight loss, abnormal swelling, dramatic changes to your bathroom habits, all need to be checked out.

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#24

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In america with the cost of health care. Any medical problem, unless you’re rich or are fortunate enough to have a job with really good health insurance.

liltinykitter:

My mom had some stomach pain- but she is very much one of the “buck up” type and so she ignored it. For months. To the point she couldn’t eat anymore. Turns out she had non-hodgkins lymphoma and a tumor was on her pancreas and growing rapidly. It cut off blood flow to her intestines and she couldn’t digest food any longer. I found out she had cancer in August of 2024. By November they told us to start palliative care and end of life planning. Then that CEO got shot and her doctor’s request for CAR-T therapy got approved. The CAR-T cost $3,000,000. My mom is in remission and doing so well. But if this country didn’t make her feel like a pest for managing her health, it wouldn’t have gotten that bad.

#25

I had a friend that ignored his abdominal pain for a long time. He kept on taking Tylenol to push through it.

Turns out it was stomach cancer. Bill left behind a wife and two young daughters when he passed.

Please, if you’re experiencing ANY abdominal pain which lasts for more than 24 hours get seen by a physician.

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#26

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Changing moles/growths/marks on the skin.

Guilty_Application14:

I might look for another doc for a second opinion visit. I’ve had three types of skin cancer and my dermatologist does a full hands-on scan twice a year with a magnifier. He has 6 or 7 spots he’s watching in detail with periodic photos. Every other visit or so I get precancerous spots frozen off.
In my early 20s I was in the Marine Corps and spent a lot of time in the sun with no sunscreen so similar to your history in that respect.

#27

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Signs of insulin resistance, the big one being waist circumference beyond the recommended measurements 35”.
I was marching myself towards type 2 diabetes and thought I was doing fine with exercise until I started have atrial fibrillation several times per week. Then I had to really get on track with my dietary choices.
If I hadn’t developed afib, I probably would have just kept going, thinking I’ll just always be a little overweight, and it’s no big deal, and then ended up with diabetes and probably a stroke or a heart attack.
I’m actually glad my heart gave me this warning that I couldn’t ignore.

#28

Not something people constantly ignore, but I just want to post a reminder: women’s signs and symptoms of a heart attack differ than men’s. I’m a cardiology technologist, so I’m the person who is performing ECGs in the ER and the first to see if someone is having a STEMI (heart attack). I have seen female patients come in with severe abdominal pain, jaw pain, shoulder pain, or back pain, and not expect to find out they are having a heart attack. Please get yourself checked out even if you aren’t having crushing chest pain or shortness of breath. .

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#29

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Weight loss.

Had a few friends who were considered overweight, went onto better diets, exercise etc and the weight just falls off them, great eh?

Except when they hit their target weight and it keeps on dropping off despite going back to a normal diet.

Both were checked out and both had terminal cancer, one lasted two weeks, the other a month.

#30

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Acid reflux.

Watch your diet early. Avoid overdrinking and overeating. Eat spicy foods once in a while, not as the defining characteristic of your personality.

#31

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When I worked in the ER I had a ridiculous amount of people come in complaining about headaches that had been going strong for weeks.

Damn_Dog_Inappropes:

My friend’s dad recently ignored a headache and confusion FOR THREE DAYS. Yes, it was a stroke. They finally realized something was going on when he couldn’t sing his granddaughter’s favorite song. He said he didn’t think it was a stroke because his muscles all worked fine. And he was confused from the stroke so he wasn’t making good choices. His DIL (he lives with the son and his wife and kids) read him the riot act for having good insurance but ignoring serious symptoms. Fortunately it looks like he’s going to make a full recovery.

#32

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Had to visit physical therapy several times across one year. One thing I notice is the magnitude of back pain problems triggered by bad daily routine and posture. These get ignored and gradually affect your quality of life. Some are reversable with phsyical therapy but others are too late to address to a full reverse point. Exercise and priortizing ones health is key here!

#33

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Sleep apnea. “It’s just snoring” until you have a heart attack in your sleep in your 40s.

BigBlueF150:

This was me. I put off having a sleep study for way too long. When I finally had it done, the doctor asked if I was actively trying to die in my sleep.

#34

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One thing people ignore until it’s too late is chronic stress.

It sneaks up slowly. At first it just feels like normal life. You have work pressure, bills, family responsibilities, and you keep telling yourself everyone feels this way. You push through it because that’s what you’re supposed to do. You think you’ll rest once things settle down, but they never really do.

Meanwhile your body is under constant strain. Your sleep gets worse, your appetite changes, you feel tense all the time, and you stop enjoying the things that used to help you relax. Over time your blood pressure rises, your immune system weakens, and your mood starts to fall apart. Then one day it catches up to you and your body forces you to stop.

The hardest part is that you usually can’t see the damage happening. There is no obvious warning sign. But the toll adds up quietly. Taking care of yourself early, even in small ways, isn’t a luxury. It is maintenance. You only get one body, and it needs rest just as much as it needs effort.

#35

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Eating a food that you’re mildly allergic to.

There will be one day when it isn’t mild.